“This is for the wound,” Ra says, lifting his injured arm as he advances toward David with deliberate steps.

  David stands frozen, his gaze locked on Charlotte’s lifeless body, unable to register anything else. Ra extends his wounded arm toward David’s head, his movements slow and menacing.

  Suddenly, Ra springs backward, his form shifting into a falcon mid-leap to dodge a scalding stream of boiling water.

  “Get a grip!” Wei shouts. “Grieve when the battle is over!”

  Wei races on foot while Lust hovers above, both locked onto Ra in relentless pursuit. Meanwhile, David tunes out the chaos around him, his focus solely on Charlotte. He steps forward slowly, his movements heavy with grief, and kneels to cradle her body in his arms.

  Charlotte had been the first soul he bonded with upon arriving on Hell’s seventh level, and now, memories of her and their full team of fifteen overwhelm him. Despite the weight of the loss, no tears fall. Instead, an inexplicable heaviness lingers in his chest, pressing down like a burden he cannot release.

  As Charlotte's body dissolves into essence dust in his arms, David carefully retrieves her band. Without hesitation, he begins absorbing her essence.

  Resuming their fight with Ra, Lust and Wei work together to keep the battle grounded. Lust hovers above, conjuring massive ice pallets and letting them crash from the sky, while Wei encircles the god with streams of molten lava, attempting to trap him. Ra counters with scorching pillars of sand that erupt unpredictably from the ground. One of these pillars engulfs Wei completely, giving Ra the opening he needs to shift into his falcon form and target Lust.

  In a blur of fiery speed, Ra repeatedly strikes Lust from all angles, each impact like a blazing fireball. Lust’s male side, however, manages to catch the falcon's beak mid-strike. Ra immediately reverts to his humanoid form, seizing Lust’s arms in a fiery grapple. Both combatants attempt to overpower the other with their searing abilities, but it becomes clear that Lust is being overwhelmed.

  Just then, a thunderstrike cracks through the air, hitting Ra square in the head. Seizing the chance, Lust spins to hurl Ra to the ground. Wei, freed from the sand pillar, follows up with a devastating attack – a torrent of hardened lava, his sword embedded within it and leading the charge.

  Still on the ground, Ra summons the solar disk before him, its radiant shield flaring to life just in time to block the incoming attack. As thunderclaps and icicles continue to rain from above, Wei, seizing the opportunity, attempts to trap the god within a hardened lava stream from beneath.

  In a desperate move, Ra shields himself in a sphere of sand once more and transforms back into his falcon form, breaking free from the assault. He evades Wei's relentless strike and dodges David’s fire-fused thunderbolts. Just as he stabilizes midair, an ice pallet crashes into him, throwing him off course for a moment. Ra quickly regains his balance, his blazing form streaking toward the pyramid like a comet.

  Ra streaks toward the dome at the base of the inverted pyramid, obliterating everything in his path. Landing near its surface, which rests against the sand, he begins whispering as though communing with it. Suddenly, the dome shifts, its surface transforming into black and white. Its two eyes merge into a single swirling entity, spinning erratically within the dome before coming to an abrupt halt, unfocused and disoriented. From the pyramid’s skyward base, a colossal figure begins to materialize.

  Ra smiles, then flies toward the newly materialized creature. It’s an overly feminine, chunky cow in a sitting posture, blinking profusely as if trying to charm anyone it sees. As Ra embraces its udder, the two flash brightly in a blinding burst. When the light fades, a new horror has taken form: a fusion of Ra and the cow – Cow-Ra.

  Cow-Ra retains the distinct falcon face of Ra, with two curved cow horns sprouting from his head. His hands and feet have been replaced by hooves, cloven and black. The familiar wound on his arm is still visible, while his skin has turned white, adorned with black spots that spread unevenly across his body. An udder now forms on Ra’s stomach and on his back, large falcon wings stretch out.

  Ra turns to face Lust, Wei, and David, who are on the ground, horrified by the monstrous form he has taken. He summons the solar disk above his head, its flaring surface now white with a black spot in the center. Even the cobra coiling around the disk has taken on a black-and-white form, much like that of a cow's. The disk spins violently, and suddenly, it fires streams of searing cow milk in their direction.

  “You get calcium! You, too, get calcium! Everyone gets calcium!” Ra bellows, his voice dripping with madness.

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  While Lust, Wei, and David evade the streams of scalding milk, a group of souls quietly creeps up behind Ra, aiming to strike. Before they can attack, Ra takes flight, leaving them behind. At that moment, the last granules of sand pour into the inverted pyramid, triggering its return to its original orientation. The pyramid abruptly teleports upright, its massive base crushing the would-be attackers beneath it. Immediately, sand begins cascading down its sides once again.

  In the air, the solar disk ceases its assault. Ra grabs it and hurls it like a spinning saw blade, its edges swiveling erratically as it hurtles toward the trio. In an instant, streams of boiling milk erupt from the disk’s centers on both sides. Ra glides horizontally through the air, his udder joining the attack, releasing additional streams of scorching milk down at his targets below.

  While Lust, Wei, and David are preoccupied evading the relentless onslaught, Ra descends with full force, his massive form slamming down onto Lust from top down. The impact is devastating, crushing both sides of the floor moderator in an instant. However, as Ra’s body hits the ground, the udder helps him bounce back into the air with minimal fall damage.

  “Fuck! All souls, attack Ra!” Wei commands, his voice cutting through the chaos.

  The army surges toward Ra, but so do the cow creatures, drawn into the fray. The battle shifts to the ground, dragging the chaos away from the pyramid. Blasts of power and weapon strikes rain down on the god, many finding their mark. Yet, Ra remains unfazed, his movements steady and unyielding despite the visible damage accumulating on his form. His newly acquired cow skin seems to provide the resilient exterior he needs, absorbing the brunt of the onslaught.

  The solar disk hovers in place, still spinning erratically. To stabilize it, Jesús anchors it with his weapon, enlisting the aid of nearby souls, including Eugene, to pull it downward. Meanwhile, Wei and David engage Ra directly, their clash intensifying. Though the disk's wild spinning lessens, it continues to oscillate, its fiery milk streams searing many souls in its vicinity. Several collapse to the ground, with some killed outright as scorching blasts melt their heads.

  Eugene, rallying a group of wind and cyclone souls, bolsters their combined efforts to drag the disk from its original spot. Their powers amplify the pull, and at last, the disk begins to shift. However, with a sudden burst of momentum, it hurtles toward them, slicing Jesús, Eugene, and several others cleanly in half, their bodies split vertically. The disk continues to roll for a few harrowing moments, carving through the chaos before finally crashing flat onto the ground.

  “Stay here. I’ll help Lust and Wei finish this fight,” Wyn says to his team.

  “No, we fight with you,” Yu replies.

  “Please…,” Wyn pleads, looking at them with a hint of desperation.

  “Then let us find James. I’m worried about him,” Mira says, her tone firm. “Take us to the saucer.”

  “Please don’t engage Ra. At least, wait for my signal,” Wyn warns.

  With a heavy sigh, Wyn propels his team toward the saucer, and they soon find the battlefield has shifted. Looking down, they realize that Lust is no longer with the army, and there’s no sign of James either. The sight churns in their stomachs, an unsettling feeling washing over them.

  Wyn’s voice trembles as he urges, “Keep scanning the battlefield for James from up here. He has to be in there somewhere!”

  The weight of the situation grows heavier, and Yu, overcome with worry, finally collapses onto the saucer, the thought of potentially losing another friend haunting him. Lisa comforts him, while Mira religiously scans the battlefield for James.

  Wyn jets into the battle, chakram blades aimed forward, targeting Ra’s back. However, without even turning around, Ra takes flight. Wyn veers sharply, giving chase as the god glides, preparing to unleash a stream of milk from his udder.With precision, Wyn propels one of his chakrams, sending it spinning violently. The attack finds its mark, tearing apart the udder and sending regular milk spilling onto Wyn.

  “I have to heat that first, you know!” Ra shouts.

  In retaliation, Ra dives toward Wyn, hooves aimed for his head with tremendous speed and force. But before the impact, three thunder strikes land in rapid succession – two striking Ra’s wings, and the third crashing into the back of his neck. As Ra falters, a stream of water sweeps Wyn to safety, carrying him back to the ground.

  Ra, now falling, encircles himself in sand, and upon landing, the shockwaves ripple outward, scorching the ground. Hot sand rushes across the battlefield, engulfing many souls in its wake, including Wei, who is charging at Ra with sword raised.

  Wei braces himself as the god charges, wrapping himself in a protective stream of water to counter the scorching sand. Wyn quickly erects a line of rock pillars to shield him, but Ra crashes through them effortlessly. In a split second, David leaps in front of Wei, absorbing the full force of the impact with his shield. With a swift motion, he drives his sword into Ra’s side.

  Reacting quickly, Ra summons hot sand from beneath David, searing the ground and distracting him. As the sand blazes, David spots the incoming spinning attack and swiftly repositions his shield to block it. The shield absorbs the full force of the blow, but the recoil is overwhelming, and David’s jaw cracks under the impact, leaving him with a broken jaw and an injured arm as he’s sent flying.

  The god spins once more, while Wei thrusts his sword forward. In an instant, the two exchange blows. Wei’s triple-bladed sword sinks deep into Ra’s neck, while Ra’s hoof strikes Wei’s temple with brutal force. Time seems to freeze for a moment – Wei’s neck snaps sideways, his eyes draining of color, as Ra recoils from the impact of the sword. Both combatants are locked in that devastating instant, frozen for a beat before Wei collapses sideways to the ground.